During assembly of timepiece components of small dimensions, such as display hands, watchmakers usually use tweezers, which enables them to manipulate the components and position them more precisely in order to create an assembly in a timepiece. Such tweezers are disclosed and shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,516.
It has become clear that, for certain types of components, the tweezers tend to leave marks on the components. In particular, when the components are made of a semiconductor material such as silicon, the very fragile external surface is marked by scratches from handling by the tweezers, which is damaging to the final aesthetic appearance of the timepiece. Handling by tweezers can even cause breakage of the component.
Grasping the timepiece components by suction has already been proposed, particularly in CH Patent No. 667 839. However, this solution does not solve the problem of marking or breakage of fragile components.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome this problem by proposing a tool which allows easy and precise handling without altering the surface of the components being handled.